Chapter 34: Opportunity Will Come
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 34: Opportunity Will Come
“Sion.”
“Yeah.”
“Give me some water. Hehehe.”
I pulled a waterskin out of my subspace pocket and handed it to Yuria.
“This makes you a lot thirstier than I thought.”
“I guess so. You sweated that much, after all.”
Yuria and I lay on the same bed, staring up at the same ceiling.
It was a time that felt like a dream.
It was also the moment I realized why men lose their heads over women.
“Sion.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“What exactly is your goal, Sion?”
“The Labyrinth?”
“Yeah. I’m curious about which floor you want to reach.”
Yuria rolled onto her side to look at me.
A girl nestled in my arms, asking about my dreams.
What kind of answer should I give her?
Should I say my dream is to conquer the deepest part of the Labyrinth, like some boyish adventurer?
Or should I be realistic and say I want to stop somewhere near the Underground City?
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it specifically.”
I decided to tell her the truth.
The floor I wanted to reach.
I hadn't set a target floor yet.
Until now, I had simply gone down as far as I could.
More than anything, thanks to Yuria, I had already half-achieved my original goal of buying a slave.
After all, the reason I wanted to buy a slave in the first place was to get a wife who wouldn't cheat on me.
I had also earned more money than a typical low-ranking adventurer could ever dream of.
To be honest, if I followed Yuria into the guild and became an official guild instructor, I could make a decent living just acting as a guide for beginners in the upper levels.
Yes, I had lost my sense of purpose a little.
Because I had secured a stable right to survival in the Labyrinth City.
I stood at a crossroads once again.
Whether to keep moving forward.
Or to settle for what I had.
That was likely why Yuria was asking about my future direction.
She must have been curious whether I would stop here or go further.
“What about you, Yuria?”
I decided to ask her instead.
What her goal was.
How many floors down she wanted to go.
I was someone who had already half-reached his goal.
So, what mattered now wasn't my goal, but hers.
“For me... well. As Yuria the adventurer, I want to reach the end of the Labyrinth. But as Yuria your girlfriend, and your wife... I don’t know.”
Yuria pondered for a moment.
I waited quietly for her to organize her thoughts.
Decisions about one's path must always be made carefully.
It was her future, after all. Rather than having others intervene, her personal choice had to be respected.
“I guess... I should stop too, right? You told me those two conditions at first, Sion. First, a slave who would love only you. Second, a domestic person, not an adventurer. You said you needed someone like that.”
“...”
I couldn't offer any rebuttal to Yuria’s answer.
The words "I should stop" sat heavily on my heart for some reason.
I felt like I might be blocking her path.
Was it right for someone like me to hold back someone who might even become a Platinum Badge?
If it weren't for me, couldn't she have flown even higher?
I might have become her cage, stripping away her freedom.
Thinking that made my chest feel tight.
I had wanted a slave wife who would obey my every command.
But I didn't want Yuria to become a mindless slave without a will of her own.
Because I liked her, I didn't want her to enter the dangerous Labyrinth anymore.
But conversely, I didn't want a Yuria who had lost her wings.
My head grew complicated with these conflicting emotions.
“Yuria.”
“Yeah?”
“I want to know your true feelings.”
“My thoughts? What I just said is what I think.”
“No, I mean... well. Are you really okay with giving up being an adventurer, Yuria?”
“...”
Yuria opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Giving up being an adventurer.
That meant giving up on moving forward.
It didn't matter to me.
I was a thoroughly secular and cynical person with the sensibilities of a 21st-century modern man.
My life was more important than anything else, and if I had money, I was the type who could throw away the Labyrinth and everything else.
But she was different from me.
Her childhood was defined by the Labyrinth City.
Her adolescence had also unfolded within the Labyrinth.
Her entire life was colored by the Labyrinth.
Perhaps Yuria was more deeply intertwined with the Labyrinth than I thought.
Furthermore, she was full of talent.
At her young age, she was already on the verge of becoming a Gold Badge.
If she underwent mana adaptation once or twice more and gained even one more ability...
She would become a guild-certified Gold Badge adventurer.
There were more Silver Badges than one might think, as they were proof of being a veteran.
However, Gold Badges—the proof of being a true elite—were far rarer.
'And finally, Yuria’s mother, Moira...'
She was a Platinum Badge.
The undisputed strongest woman in the Labyrinth City.
A monster who possessed five Demon Eyes and two Magic Swords.
Moira was someone who had reached the 7th floor and returned alone.
Even if she playfully flirted with me now and spent her time looking at paperwork in the guild...
The fact remained that she was a legend who had dominated an era.
Could Yuria, who grew up under such a person, truly give up on the Labyrinth?
She had a mother who was great enough to be called a hero.
Moreover, judging by that old armor, it seemed her late father had also wanted her to be an adventurer.
Perhaps in the distant future.
Yuria might regret today's decision.
And in her regret...
She might come to resent me.
Before that happened.
I felt it would be better if she clearly achieved her own goals as well.
“Sion.”
“Yeah. I’m listening.”
“Is it okay if I... tell you the truth?”
“Yeah. Tell me the truth.”
“The thing is... I...”
Yuria seemed to hesitate, as if afraid that I might push her away.
“No matter what decision you make, our current relationship won't suddenly fall apart. So, tell me.”
“...Okay. Thank you.”
Yuria finally seemed to have found her resolve.
“I want to go down to the 7th floor. I’m curious about the... 7th-floor Utopia my mom said she saw.”
“The 7th-floor Utopia?”
“Yeah. The place called the Nest of Fairies, or the Hatchery.”
The 7th floor of the Labyrinth.
The lowest floor humanity had reached was probably around the 7th floor.
So Yuria wanted to go as far as the floor her mother had reached.
“The 7th floor. I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. She said it was a very, very beautiful place.”
“Alright, fine. The 7th floor. Let’s go there sometime.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. The 7th floor. Of course, I’m not saying let’s go right now. But we can probably reach it before we die, right?”
“Hahahaha. You’re right. We’ll probably reach it at least once before we die of old age. Yeah. Let’s go see it together someday.”
I didn't tell Yuria to give up being an adventurer.
Let's just make it so that one day, I'll go down to the 7th floor with her and then come back up.
Someday.
The upper floor of a luxury lodging in the Labyrinth City.
Leah Lionel, the daughter of the House of Lionel, questioned the witch Rien, who was lounging in the room.
“Hey, Rien. Has the porter still not come up?”
“Mmm? Ah... wait a second...”
Rien’s ability, 'Clue Tracking.'
Using this, Leah had been tracking Sion’s location for several days.
She wanted to meet him as soon as he emerged from the Labyrinth.
She didn't know why, but his face kept flickering in her mind.
“Eh...? It looks like the porter... is on the surface...?”
“What? Really? When! He was underground just a moment ago!”
“Uh... he might have been up for... a while now...”
It had been quite some time since Rien last activated Clue Tracking.
In the meantime, Sion had already come to the surface, finished his report, and even finished the celebratory dinner.
“Why didn't he come to see me right away? I wonder why.”
Leah’s thoughts deepened at Rien’s answer.
She wondered if she was the only one who had missed him so much.
She also felt like she had somehow lost to him.
“Maybe he went to rest because he was tired, My Lady.”
“Is that so...?”
Leah nodded at the words of the female knight Rika, who was meditating with her eyes closed, thinking that might be the case.
Rika felt a sense of gratification watching Leah, who had been talking about the porter for days.
'Did she want to enter the Labyrinth that badly? My Lady is quite something.'
She had completely missed the mark.
Leah wasn't waiting for the porter just because of the Labyrinth...
But Rika, who was completely disconnected from romance, had no way of knowing such delicate emotions.
Despite being a woman herself, Rika was quite dense.
“Well, you’re right. He’s been in and out of the Labyrinth for days. He must be exhausted. Right, right.”
“Yes. He probably fell asleep the moment he hit the bed, My Lady.”
“Yeah, yeah. Right. That must be it, right? Nothing’s wrong, right? Should we go see him? His bed might be uncomfortable. Wouldn't he like it if we got him a room at our place? I saw before that he prefers budget-friendly lodging.”
“Heeeh...? You want to go see him at this hour...?”
“I mean, I’m curious. He is my life-saver, after all.”
“That’s... true, but...”
“Let’s go.”
“Ugh...”
Rien stood up after tidying the book she had been reading.
“I will go with you, My Lady.”
“Yeah. Let’s all go together, just take a quick look at his face, and come back.”
And so, the Porter Consolation Party was formed.
Except for the priestess Erika, who was volunteering at the temple, the three of them headed out to find the porter.
“Is it here...?”
“This is in a completely different direction from the porter’s usual lodging.”
“Eh? Then where is this...?”
“I don’t know either!”
“It appears to be a residential section, My Lady.”
“You’re right. Why would he come to a residential section? The porter lives in a lodging house.”
“Mmm... that building over there... I can feel his presence from there...”
Rien pointed toward a building, feeling a sense of unease.
A two-story detached house.
It looked like a fairly expensive building.
It didn't have the atmosphere of a mansion where nobles would live, but it was the kind of house a Gold Badge adventurer or higher, who earned a solid income, might live in.
'Don't tell me... the porter...'
Unlike Rika, Rien had somewhat noticed the Lady’s feelings.
She was 120 percent sure Leah had feelings for the porter.
But at this hour, he wasn't at a lodging house, but inside someone’s home?
'There’s definitely... something going on...'
Rien got a strong feeling that it would be bad to go any further.
“Leah, for now... let’s go back. I don’t think this is right...”
“Huh? What isn't?”
“No... it looks like he has some business... let’s just wait until he comes to find us first...”
“Indeed, it might be a bit much to suddenly visit a stranger’s house at this hour just to see the porter.”
“I suppose you’re right. It would be a breach of etiquette. I guess I got a bit too excited.”
Leah nodded readily.
Outside the Labyrinth City, her status as a noble would carry weight, but this was inside the Labyrinth City.
If she acted on a whim, the fallout might be difficult to handle.
“Still, it’s good to know he returned safely. That’s a relief.”
“Yeah... a relief...”
“Come to think of it. The porter went into the Labyrinth with the Guild Master’s daughter, didn't he?”
“Uh...!? Uh... right...?”
“There’s nothing between those two, right?”
“From what I’ve heard, the porter doesn't seem to have any interest in her at all.”
“Just the porter? Then what about the Guild Master’s daughter?”
“It seemed like she was clinging to the porter quite a lot.”
“...”
“Le-Leah! Let’s just go back for now... there’s nothing... we can do right now...”
“Yeah. Right. You’re right. Everything you said is right.”
Leah clenched her fists.
While the porter was in the Labyrinth, she had done some investigation into him and the women around him.
That was why she knew well.
About the woman named Yuria.
“They said she’d be a Gold Badge soon. Fine.”
She had no intention of giving up.
She had already signed a contract to enter the Labyrinth with the porter.
'We’re Labyrinth partners, anyway. The opportunity will definitely come.'
The Lady’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She had no intention of letting anyone monopolize the porter.